Three scenarios for the redevelopment of the Poindexter Village public-housing site were
presented last evening for a group that included more than a few skeptical Near East Side residents
and community activists.

“Which one resonates with you?” consultant Jamie Greene asked the group of about 100.

“I think this is a sham,” Shongo said as tables of people reviewed the three ideas for the
future of the Poindexter Village property. The Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority plans to
demolish the Near East Side complex.

Shongo suggested that everyone leave until the city finishes its historical review of the
property, which he and others want to see preserved.Randy Black, Columbus’ historic-preservation
officer, is completing the federally required historical review, which includes alternatives to
demolition.Such is the raw nature of the debate over the future of the 27-acre site that represents
many things, especially to members of the African-American community with a long history in the
neighborhood.

This most recent meeting to discuss ideas to redevelop the area near University Hospitals East
took place last night at a community planning workshop at the King Arts Complex, close to the
shuttered public-housing complex.

Partners Achieving Community Transformation, a consortium of the city, Ohio State University and
the Housing Authority, is developing a master plan for the area.

The three scenarios for Poindexter Village include constructing between 570 and 654 new housing
units, most of them multifamily, including 100 senior housing units, plus a park and community
garden and perhaps a library.

Two of the three scenarios that consultants Goody Clancy developed call for saving one of
Poindexter Village’s 35 buildings for some other use.

That could be possible, said Bryan Brown, CMHA’s senior vice president for business development.
But the agency has no money for restoring the entire complex, dedicated in 1940 as the city’s first
public-housing development.

The housing authority already has emptied the 414-unit complex.

Several workshop participants suggested that some of the buildings be saved.

“These are monuments to the strivers of the black middle-class,” where they got their start
years ago in a segregated world, said Lawrence Auls, who lives a mile from Poindexter Village.

Shongo, a longtime resident, activist and artist, said after the workshop that consultants are
not using ideas that he and others suggested, such as creating a cultural center or job-training
facility.

“They’re just trying to gentrify the neighborhood,” he said.

Next to Poindexter Village, crews are busy tearing down the 10-story Poindexter Tower; the three
scenarios presented last night did not include plans for that site.

Some at last night’s meeting said PACT should have waited to present options to redevelop
Poindexter Village until the historic review is complete.